I Wouldn’t Have Won the Vocal Fiction Contest Without Medium

Let me tell you how I won $5,000

I hear a lot of complaints about not making money on Medium. If you’re trying to make a living here, you’d better rethink your strategy.

But back in 2017 when I joined, the payment was worse than it is now. It was nothing, because writers didn’t get paid for blogging. Medium was just beginning to roll out its Partner Program. They tried a pilot with a few hundred writers that didn’t include me, and shortly after the pilot, Medium made payment available to everyone.

I was beyond thrilled when I earned my first $4. “I got paid for writing!” I told my husband.

Blogging on Medium beat the rejection letters I used to get decades ago. Back then, there was no such thing as writing on the internet. You sent out your manuscript with a hope and a prayer (to only one publisher at a time, because multiple submissions were taboo), then waited months, until the story you had birthed through pain and hard work landed back in your mailbox with a brief rejection slip.

It was brutal.

Before my Medium days, when self-publishing became a thing, I self-published a few books and wrote some articles for various newsletters and newspapers. But my three children and a career far removed from literary pursuits pulled me away from the writing life.

Discovering Medium

Then my children grew up, I retired from my job, and discovered Medium. I no longer had to wait for a manuscript to drift back to my mailbox, as I had in “the old days.” I could write whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and had a ready-made audience.

But there was one caveat. A ready-made audience didn’t mean people would read my work. I needed to write something worth reading.

I wrote my first article, then with a pounding heart, hit Publish. After a day or two of crickets, I decided to quit the writing life. No one, not one single person, read my story.

The decision to quit lasted one afternoon. Since I didn’t have any inclination to take up sewing or rejoin the workforce, I tried again, because writing is what I do. I honed my craft, interacted with other writers, and eventually started to gain traction.

This Writing Community

I love the writing community. Most of my early writing friends have left the platform, so I’ve seen the importance of continual engagement and of cultivating new writing friends. If you plan on sticking around, you will see writers come and go. People get burned out, they move on, they use this as a stepping stone and branch out, or they die. Yes, life happens.

You’ll be disappointed when some of your favorite writers leave, but expect it.

For me, writing on Medium has never been about the money, although I’ve been disappointed to see such a steep drop in earnings since 2020. Once you’ve earned a decent amount, it’s hard to earn less.

But that’s the way it is with a lot of businesses. Commission plans change when sales people earn too much. Companies prioritize their bottom line.

When I consider Medium, I like to consider what the entire experience has brought to my life. Many of the other writers here have been supportive, encouraging, and have helped me earn money in other arenas.

I started writing on Vocal Media and NewsBreak because of recommendations on this platform. I probably wouldn’t have heard of them if I hadn’t been writing here.

At first, Vocal Media didn’t seem worth it. They only pay a few cents for hundreds of views and my articles were going nowhere.

You can join without paying the $99 yearly fee, but when I join something I like to be all in. I paid the money without a second thought, just like I did when I joined Medium’s Partner Program. Part of being supported is being supportive of others in their endeavors, and that includes supporting the writing venue that makes it possible for me to publish my work.

It looked like I would have a hard time recouping the $99, since I was getting paid in pennies. But Linda Caroll helped me make headway with Vocal by offering a different perspective. She wrote an article about earning money through entering the Vocal Media challenges, so I followed her advice.

A Contest I Didn’t Expect to Win

I entered seven stories in the Vocal fiction contest. Six of those stories went nowhere, but the seventh one, The Blonde, was one of 100 finalists.

I didn’t know this until another supportive writer, Suzanne V. Tanner, tweeted it. I hadn’t kept tabs on the contest, because I didn’t expect to win. Maybe I was too pessimistic, but pessimism stemmed from years of rejection letters and from reading the many writers who are so much more talented than I am.

I didn’t keep tabs on my story after placing in the top 100, either, but I appreciated the support on this platform by Linda and other writers who posted articles providing links to Medium writers who made it to the top 100.

What overwhelming support! I was so happy to have made that initial cut.

Imagine my surprise when I received the unexpected and astounding news from Vocal Media that my story was a winner. It was selected as one of the top 25 out of 13,000 entries, so my story would appear in a book of short fiction. I would also receive $5,000.

I told my husband, “I just won $5,000 in a short story contest.”

He said, “It’s got to be a scam. Let me see that email.”

But it wasn’t a scam, and without my friends on Medium directing me to Vocal Media and supporting my efforts, this never would have happened.

There have been other “wins” from writing here. When Roz Warren recommended I send one of my stories to Chicken Soup for the Soul, I submitted several stories and two were accepted. Chicken Soup pays $200 a story and it’s easy to submit to them.

Kris Keppeler has featured many of my humor stories in her award-winning podcast.

I’ve been contacted by other online platforms to write for them.

The Real Win

Without Medium, none of this would have happened. It’s interesting that my writing adventures have occurred after retirement, when I’m not trying to “be a writer” anymore. I don’t expect to fulfill my youthful dreams of writing a bestseller, and it doesn’t matter. Not one bit.

There are other things in life so much more important, and it took me a lot of years to reach that conclusion. My family, friends, faith, just living and enjoying every day to the fullest are the things that fill me with joy. It also fills me with joy that I can write something and people will read it.

A story might have hundreds of readers or it might have a few, but each reader is important. If just one person reads your work, you have affected that one person. Strive to educate, enlighten, entertain, or inspire with your words.

Build other people up, which is what the people on this platform have done for me.

Every new day is a new beginning full of opportunities and adventures. Experience them, write about them, and most important of all, relish them.

Don’t get discouraged. The time you put in is never wasted. The next thing that happens could be your next big break.

Enjoying the journey is more important than reaching the destination, because the destination will continue to change. The journey is ultimately your legacy and your joy.